Welcome to part two with Dr.
You know, I'd like to think that she would have continued faithful.
“That even in that moment of crisis, she would have gone on,”
because she had already faced one crisis, where she was going to make her last meal for herself and her son, and she gave it to the prophet. That's a pretty good response to a breaking point. So, I'd like to think she would have gotten past this one too, but it made me think of other breaking points.
Job, who is described as a perfect man, but loses so much that he does go into a pretty serious depression, and then his friends turn against him, and then even his wife gets on his case, Abraham was past that,
because he gets this command to take his son of promise. He had to send the other son away, and this is in his old years. He has this son of promise who believes, and we're carrying on the priesthood,
and God says, "Take him up in the mountain, and do to him what your father did to you." Your pagan father, who took you to be a human sacrifice to idols, but don't worry because I'm living God, so it'll be okay.
He gets up early the next morning.
“That's what he does with his breaking point.”
I'm stunned and so grateful for these examples, Joseph Smith. I'm sure there was more than one moment in the prophet's life, like a breaking point, but one of them is very visible in Libertydale, where he feels abandoned and expresses that in heart-rending language.
But what does he do? He takes it to God. He doesn't turn away. He takes his heartbreak to God. I don't know why we would think that that beautiful response
in Section 121 came the first day he was in Libertydale. He was there four and a half months. He persisted and he kept reaching for Christ. He didn't get the answer immediately, but he was ready for it when it came,
and willing to receive it. I will say that in that year after I lost Chris, I felt like that happens where his brass and the earth was his iron. I can believe it. I had had all these impressions that had come to me early on,
that were very generous and comforting and then silence.
I've never felt that spiritually alone.
It was horrible. I knew God loved me, but I couldn't feel it. And I couldn't hear it. I didn't stop praying,
but they were weird prayers. I mean, they were just sort of on all the time. I was in touch with him. I didn't turn away, but it was hard.
I know that happened. We read these stories. Oh, if I'd prayed and the boy comes back to life. Or this happened and fire the Lord fell. I mean, sometimes it's a long time before that still spot voice comes.
A long time and doesn't mean God doesn't love us. It's kind of seeing what we'll do with our breaking points. Like Peter,
I hope we always respond with to whom shall I go.
Where else am I going to go? I don't want anything else. What am I going to start drinking? Start going for the dopamine hits? Worship a pagan God? No, I don't want that.
I don't want that. Even if I feel abandoned, I know I'm not abandoned. That's part of a breaking point. God's given me a chance to see who.
Okay, now what? Like will you still hold firm? Well, let me tie it in to the Mount Carmel events. Which in chapter 18,
“of course, this is the story we all remember about.”
It's spectacular as not the whole story of Elijah. This is just one moment. And by the way, it doesn't convert anybody. So it's not like it really was a roaring success. It was a really impressive moment.
I remember my dad telling a story when we would be in a car. I mean, we talked about the gospel and our family. It was really conversational. And I'm so grateful for that. And I tried to do the same thing with my children.
And I hope that they're doing the same with my grandchildren. Hopefully these things that we like can do to Rotomy. It says that we talk of these things when we rise up. We'd lie down and when we walk by the way with our family. We drove a lot of times across the country in the summers.
My dad would sometimes tell us favorite stories from Scripture.
And one of them was always Elijah.
Of course, he had this beautiful Spanish accent. Perfect English, but beautiful Spanish accent and great voice. And I can remember. It's like I can hear it still. My dad talking about how these sacrifices are built.
It starts with this amazing question. How long halt ye between two opinions. And then, of course, if they'll be God worship him and if you'll be God worship him. And it reminded me, these three statements have stood out to me. At first, I wanted to call them.
They're really not. They're more like, where do you stand questions? Hopefully this ties in with the breaking points. It's the where do you stand question? Think about the three that came to me.
I remember thinking this when I read the first one this time through which is...
Moses who comes down from Sinai and they're worshiping a pagan God.
“The golden calf in the sensious, depraved ways.”
What is his question? Who's on the Lord's side? That's a where do you stand question? Some of you have gone to the pagan gods this quickly. Is that where you stand or do you stand with me?
It's a where do you stand question? The other one that came to mind was Joshua. Choose you this day. He's going to be a good day. He's going to be a good day.
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“He can full time for a while before he met his wife.”
He was a professional work in the Bay Area on the phone once he told me that he said, I have really cleaned up what I'm watching when I come home. He wasn't watching our rated stuff or whatever. It was not that at all, but he was just like, I'm just trying to be more careful because I hear foul stuff at work every day.
And these are all professionals like graduate degrees. They're just so much stuff that is not going to invite the spirit.
That Chase is the spirit away.
He said that I decided I'd be more careful on on my own. I mean, I don't want to be de-sensitized. I want it to bother me. Not that I'm going to say something rude or whatever we live in the world. But I thought that was a really great awareness.
And I think all of us can do that. And our kids are we helping to curate their environment because they are bombarded. If we can be aware of that, kids are not going to curate themselves. We are the ones that can help them to harness that natural man. That is, honestly, a job one of a parent is to help them learn to harness their appetites.
It's all connected. That's a trouble. Everything's connected to my head. It's all one to turn around. So the drought is broken.
Just about publicly threatens the life of Elijah. So he leaves and he goes up Mount Horib, which is the same as Sinai. This is the mountain of God that Elijah withdraws to. And he's fed by angels as he rises on the mountain. God sends angels to leave food for him.
So he has the ministering even of these angelic beings. But he is depressed back before Mount Carmel. When Elijah shows up to do the challenge for the priests of bail, what is it that Ahab first says to him? Art thou he that trouble is wrong.
Which is like, okay, as a counselor, I'm going to say that is classic blaming. Some people just don't want to look in the mirror.
It's always somebody else's fault.
You know, I have a problem, but it's your fault. I'm not saying other people can't be difficult and create issues in our lives. But there's always something for us to learn and all we can control is ourselves. But not Ahab. Ahab is never going to look in the mirror. He's just not a guy who's going to look in the mirror.
He's like, you're the one who's causing all this trouble. And then what does Elijah say? Actually, look in the mirror. It's you. You're the one because of all that you've done.
Anyway, just pointing out that classic blaming is so human to want to say it's your fault. I wouldn't have done this if you hadn't done that. Or the only reason I yelled was because you or I wouldn't be so impatient if you would guys would obey. I would be in a better mood if other people would just do their part. And it doesn't mean that we're wrong in our observation.
Maybe those people should do better. About all kinds of things. Is that going to be my excuse? If the rest of the world gets it right, then I'll be nice. What?
“I don't think that's how salvation works.”
You know, certainly not exaltation. I have talked to people.
I have never tearing this more than once from a grandfather who says, yeah, it's pretty tough on my kids.
But I'm going to get it with my grandchildren and I'm kind of like, does that even count? You think you're going to get credit for that? Because you couldn't be nicer to your own children when you had to live with those little natural men and women in your home. But now that they're just people that you visit once in a while, you're going to be kind. Let's not avoid the challenge wherever it comes.
That's part of the time in the spiritual weight room, right? Is it bringing young who said, and I think maybe it's an old saying, the gospel is here to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Harrow belief actually. Okay. So he's troubling Israel by afflicting the comfortable, right?
Stop trying to stop us in what we're doing. It's right. Get out of our way. We're driving here. Right.
Right. Just destruction. Yeah. No stumbling blocks on our way to hell.
“I think the question too that God asks, there's some interesting questions here, right?”
Like, how long how you between two opinions are you, he that trouble with Israel? I mean, out of order, but here's another one. What does thou here, Elijah? That's the Lord to Elijah as he's going up Sinai. And he asks it twice before the whole wind earthquake fire thing and after.
And it's interesting because it could mean a lot of things I think, but to me it meant you can do it. Elijah, don't just withdraw. What are you doing up here? Obviously it's a sacred mountain. And Elijah turns to God, all those things are good.
I'm not trying to disrespect this amazing man that I admire so much.
But it is interesting that the Lord is saying, like, what are you doing here? He says, I just want to be taken. I'm just so tired. Even after this big light show on the caramel, they won't really repent. And what does he say?
I'm alone. And a verse 14, "I even I only am left and they seek my life to take it away." And then, of course, God says, you have a few more things to do before I can release you.
“You have to, a night, so-and-so, to be the king of Syria.”
And Syria is their enemy, and will come and give them trouble. God uses the enemies, the earthly enemies, in order to prompt opportunities to repent.
He also, of course, wants him to anoint Elijah, who will be his successor.
Another amazing prophet in Israel.
Then he tells him, "In verse 18, yet I have left me 7,000 in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto bail, and every mouth which has not kissed him." Well, you're not down in Elijah, and it's interesting in the next chapters that remain in kings. We hear from other prophets. Even while Elijah is still the main prophet, there are other prophets who have little assignments to talk to the king here or there. There were good men, and I imagine that Elijah worked with them as the chief administrator of this period of Israel's history.
He found them. He calls Elijah, who comes to join him, and these other little prophets say little, but lesser known prophets have some assignments to under Elijah's administration.
“So I think that's interesting. Again, we know what it feels like to be alone, and to feel like maybe I'm the only one left.”
Maybe I'm the only one in my family.
I told the story on my podcast the other day, "Do you remember this story that President Hinkley told once about meeting a young man in Japan who had joined the church?" And this was a long time ago, of course. The young man had been disowned by his entire family and extended family, lost everything. And President Hinkley got a chance to speak with him and said, "You have paid such a terrible price for joining the church, has it been worth it?" And the young man answered, "Well, it's true, isn't it?"
And that's where do you stand question, isn't it? You stand. It costs you all of this. This is where I stand, even if the heavens are as brass and the earth is as iron sometimes. Those are just temporary moments of stretching.
“There are where you stand moments. Is this as far as you can go? And now you're going to turn back to what?”
Paganism? That has no power to save. No power to stretch. No power to magnify or fulfill our potential. Elijah, in a way, is taking a little bit to task. What do we stop here? You know, he needed a break and he does hear the still small voice, which is another tender message, but we talk about that a lot. So I'm going to go on to something else.
Elder Lawrence Corbridge gave a wonderful talk, a logo called "Stan Forever." In this talk, I think we can tie this into what's happening here and what happens throughout God's work with us as his people. He said, "Although we may not know the answer to every question, we must know the answers to the primary questions. And if we do, the gates of hell shall not prevail against us, and we will stand forever.
The prophet Daniel said that in the last days, shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed,
and it shall stand forever. The kingdom of God is the Church of Jesus Christ of Light and He Saints.
“It will stand forever. The question is, will you and I stand? Will you stand forever or will you go away?”
I love that beginning invitation. The kingdom will stand. But will you and I stand? Are we going to stand forever? And that's our choice. Breaking points are going to come. Elijah on this mountain is in another breaking point. I am so tired. I am the only one left. And they want to kill me. God is like, "Well, there's still a few things to do, and he goes and does them."
So he had that moment. The prophet Joseph had that moment. Abraham has that moment. Job has, I mean, everybody has that moment. How many times did that happen in Nephi? I mean, I have to be alone and he stands. He stands forever. Elijah stands forever. This is the invitation. You know, I thought about, like, how do we help our kids get to this place where they can stand? And we are seeing some wonderful young people come through. Really, really wonderful spirits.
But it's also really hard for a lot of our young kids as their bombarded with paganism. On every side, dopamine hits calling night and day. I go back to my own experience. Growing up in Indiana, I can remember. I know these aren't the only times, but there are times that stand out in my mind as moments where I prayed and felt an answer. Nothing that seemed about spectator. And, you know, if you lived in the Midwest, there are thunderstorms that you can't believe. They're just different from the rain we got in the west.
They're scary.
And you have to stop because you cannot see. And then, of course, the blizzards in the winter are the same kind of volume.
Those rainstorms with sheet lightning and I don't know. It's like the whole earth is shaking.
“And I remember my parents were away from home. My grandmother and sisters were probably asleep because I remember feeling afraid looking out this window.”
My bedroom window at this thunderstorm at night. And I just felt afraid. And I prayed. And I felt comforted. There was nothing spectacular. But I felt that God heard my prayer and gave me comfort.
Another thing that happened when I was young. It didn't figure out how it was like 19, but I used to get strep throat like four times a year.
And it was brutal. Like I was in bed for a week. High fevers. And I could not swallow. So I remember being in bed. And I was in agony. And it would last for days. Well, I prayed many times and would feel some relief. But I remember specifically one time I asked my dad to give me a blessing. And he did. And I felt some relief. I didn't jump out of bed and wasn't completely healed. But I felt relief. So why did those things stand out for me? Because it was like personal awareness that there was a God who heard my prayers and was mindful of me and had power to bless.
“That was the hook for me. Because then it was like, as I grew, why would I want to offend a God who loves me and has power to bless?”
Why would I stray from that? Now that didn't make me a perfect kid, but it was a strong hook. So I remember thinking with my own children that one of the greatest privileges of my life was teaching them how to pray. Because I wanted them to have that same connection, that same hook. Because it helped me stand. And it has helped me even in those times where I felt spiritually alone. It has helped me stand. Why would I leave this God of glory and power who loves me?
When the time is right, in his infinite wisdom, which is so far above mine, I can't even see, of course, what he sees, he will do what is best for me. I was talking to one of my daughters about some of these thoughts. And this light bulb went off in my head that I had, I mean, it's so obvious when you think about it, but I thought, you know, we have increasing numbers of attachment injuries. Now, attachment is super important. I'm talking about attachment with God.
“That's what I'm talking about. It's an attachment. There's a hook. I am in.”
Yet we have, every generation has greater percentages of attachment injuries in secure attachment. The boomers, apparently at 35%, give or take, have attachment injuries in secure attachment. And millennials, 50%. Gen Z, 65%. And we're getting past Gen Z now. Now, why is this? It's the family. You think maybe the proclamation on family is inspired to remind us how important it is in a world that is pulling the family apart and making it sound like motherhood is a leftover job. Somehow, it's demeaning because, like, you couldn't do anything else. I actually did on my podcast, an extra podcast, one time in response to some social media stuff that I called it in defense of motherhood.
And I was speaking specifically about full-time motherhood. I know not every woman has that pro-liger option. I recognize that. God recognizes that, of course. We are talking about if it's possible, these things are important. How insulting is it to think that God who loves his daughters, everybody's much as his sons would say, okay, you daughters of mine. This is going to turn your brain into mush, and it's going to bore the heck out of you, and you're going to start worrying about covering outside the lines, but somebody's got to change the diapers.
Somebody has got to cook and do the laundry. Are we really saying that motherhood can't enlarge us? I never did anything that made me feel more in need of enlightenment.
And I'm a pretty smart person, but there wasn't a day that I was a full-time mom that I didn't wish I were smarter. I'm not a day, and I was the most soul-expanding experience of my life to be almost 20 years as a full-time mother. Best thing I ever did, you want to talk about where I learned to gospel. It was in the trenches. It was in the trenches, teaching my children how to attach to God and getting further attached myself and needing revelation, having the privilege of seeing their prayers answered and helping them see how that was answered.
See the love of God.
I mean, it could be the dinner table. It could be at the nighttime prayers or scripture reading. How did you feel the love of God today?
Though we're on the table or whatever and ask them to recognize it and have it be meaningful, not a Cheerio's answer, but like something real, so that they can attach. But attachment problems are serious, very seldom that we ever get close to the ideal. But if we can, those things can really bless. And God can magnify our efforts where we don't have the ideal fatherlessness and other huge issue I did find something that I thought was worth quoting. Fatherhood plays a crucial role in attachment in the United States approximately 17 million families are fatherless.
“The staggering number underscores a crisis in the family structure. Fatherlessness is linked to numerous social issues, including a high incidence of mass shootings with over 99% of shooters coming from fatherless homes.”
We think we can mess around with these divine structures and have no fallout where we are doing what we can the Lord will magnify our efforts. Don't get depressed if we don't have the ideal ideal is an ideal for a reason. But do what we can and attaching with our children is so important. Sometimes we want to say we had an activity or we played a game really attachment is going to come from listening, listening, not just jumping in with a solution but validating their feelings which doesn't mean endorsing.
But validating, they kind of say I hate my brother I'm not going to say like oh that's a good idea. I'm going to say what happened and I'm going to listen even though I could jump in and say like oh don't say hate that's a bad word like we don't say hate their family or you can eat to love each other.
“It doesn't really help with that secure attachment, this secure attachment is going to come from saying well tell me what happened. I can validate their pain without endorsing and I can say like yes sometimes brothers are really tough.”
That's not permission to hate your brother. I'm not endorsing that they know how to feel about that but this is a time to say your feelings matter.
That doesn't mean we act on feelings but you can come here and talk about them and I care and I can pull on into that. God cares about how you feel. He understands how hard it can be. He wants us to go pass me. Let's say a prayer together. Let's see if we can get some peace. Help them attach to us and then we hand it up to God so that they are attached to him.
“Lots of indications that people have a hard time attaching to their father or their father is unable to be attached to have a hard time connecting with God because he is the ultimate father.”
So if they have a father who doesn't care or isn't listener or available or all those good things then they see God as distant and remote and uncarrying. My own mother had a terrible father and she was challenged in her feeling attached to God. But she did. She made the effort and accomplished it and I was privileged to see that journey in part because she would talk about it and share that but with firm conviction that God did love her and that she could get past her wounds. It's not that if we have imperfect parents we can never attach to God but what a blessing it is to our children if we can help them feel that secure attachment to mother and father. What do you think about that because I think attachment is what helps us stand forever.
First start talking you said attachment injuries. Is that the phrase you use in secure attachment attachment injuries it's a belonging it's a connection it's feeling safe emotionally safe with a consistent person. Frankly a lot of times when we're home we're not really with the kids they're doing their thing and we're doing ours sometimes we really do have to turn off the devices come together and talk or we can follow them around until we get a chance to catch up with each of them and say hey talk to me for a minute how's it going you know one thing was so grateful for when we were in Chicago and of course this was before devices being everywhere Chris had travel for family services to Wisconsin and Minnesota from Chicago.
We didn't realize that but he was gone a lot and overnight on these trips and it was hard we had four children we moved Chicago we had six kids and we left three half years later when he would come back. Of course when these trips and we didn't have cell phones back then so we couldn't stay in constant touch I tried to catch him up okay this happened in this kid and this is just so he could like stay in the loop and you know what so so impressive to me.
He was such a good father. He would say oh yeah I checked with him about that or oh yeah I talked to her and she told me that and I was like how wonderful that he picked up those threads.
Here he was making and living to support us and so I could be home and we were on a tight budget but he would come home and pick up those threads of course that he couldn't pick them all up it was my job as the wife and mother to help him do that and I was happy to do that but it was so wonderful that he was doing it anyway.
He didn't forget the concerns of our children and he followed up and these we...
I've had some long conversations about Pokemon.
Yeah well no it's attachment it was like he cared and they knew it because he kept those things in his mind and in his heart.
“And then he showed that he cared by like telling what happened to that it's this safety honestly if there's a word I would really emphasize it's emotional safety physical and emotional safety.”
This is why our kids can stand forever now again even without a parent and we have seen this we have seen people like Abraham. He didn't have good attachment with his dad we don't hear much about his mom there are many who stand forever without having the blessings of that cultivated attachment in their early years.
And we can still attach to God so it's not like oh you're out of luck if you didn't have the ideal that's not true it's never true God can bridge any gap.
If we will let him but we can bless our children we can give them a really wonderful leg up if we will help them feel that love safety that emotional safety and then they see us bringing God into it. Let's notice God's love every day. Another attachment touching to God too. That's right because that is the one we'll bring them in.
I'd love that and Lily coming from you this is powerful you have had your own breaking points and you are standing forever.
I don't want to go anywhere else. Yeah where would you go you said it earlier it's it's Peter going out. Yeah where would we go I love the Lord I love the gospel. Well thank you I mean it's such a blessing let me say a few more things about the ceiling powers. I thought it was Elder Cook who said this and I actually was Elder Anderson but because Elder Cook talked about ceiling powers in conference.
And he did mention something that was new to me that the keys were brought to Joseph Smith or Calgary in the current temple one week after the dedication on Easter Sunday I don't think I had realized it was an Easter Sunday. When the restoration of those keys happened that was beautiful and he said it was one of those years where Easter coincided with Passover like it did for us this year as well. So it was really a special time when of course in many ways God lines up the stars and then the cosmos all bend to these beautiful things and show the order and engineering.
“One of the other things that was said by Joseph Smith that I really liked was that the spirit of Elias is first remember Elias is the gospel of peace the keys that Elias brought were basically a perfecting of the saints gospel of Abraham.”
That's really what perfects the saints and prepares us to be sanctified and then ultimately a Zion people Elijah second and Elijah brought the ceiling keys we have to say a little more about that and Messiah last. That's Joseph Smith Elias first Elijah second Messiah last of course Christ in his glorious second coming we want the power of Elijah a lot of this is repetitive but it's still beautiful to seal those who dwell on earth to those who dwell on heaven. This is the power of Elijah and the keys of the kingdom of Jehovah.
Okay, where is it that I found elder Anderson's quote yes from his speech on marriage which by the way we haven't had a speech on marriage for a long time and it was great. He touched on all the right things.
“I don't think I've ever heard anybody do this before but remember he mentioned divorce being sometimes justified and then he said I'll put more of that in the footnotes to the speech.”
I don't remember anybody really referring to that what a brilliant thing to do because they have limited time but it was like there's more on this for people who are dealing with that. To give them comfort and additional prophetic council I thought that was wonderful but if there was one thing I remembered from conference this was it. This is quote in present Gordon B. Hinkley this is elder Anderson if nothing else came out of all the sorrow and trivial and pain of the restoration. Now think of that the sorrow, trivial and pain of the restoration we're talking getting chased out of every place New York.
When Missouri terrible things in Missouri then they go both this beautiful city navu that they have to pull back from a swamp and they get chased out of there too we lost the best blood of the 19th century. That was part of the cost of the restoration. So we're talking lives of Joseph and Hiram and many others who paid terrible prices leaving family and friends leaving England.
If nothing else came out of all the sorrow and trivial and pain of the restor...
It would have been worth all that it has cost. That was the crowning gem.
“That's why Joseph Smith sounds so celebratory in section 128.”
Glad tidings for more tidings for the living and for the dead. So we not go on and so great a cause stand forever. It's all the same thing. Sealing power sounds like attachment. Attach our families to God every unbreakable bond that will stand forever that bond will endure forever. What a blessing to live in this time where temples are all over the place.
I do actually love that President Oak said. Let's regroup. Yeah, we got quite a few out there. He's a detail man. I love it. He's like practical. You can just see how thrilled President Nelson was every time he was like. More temples and of course it's thrilling. We were all celebrated but I love that President Oak said like, okay, let's get some of these fish.
Catch a breath. I just love the practicality of that. Boyd Kay Packer said, then I don't remember where when I actually looked at him and I couldn't find it but I know I heard him say this. The temple is the only place on earth where we can organize eternal families. I want to say something about ceilings because people get hurt by this doctrine sometimes if they don't maybe have a more complete understanding.
I used to talk about this every semester in my seminary classes. Well, every year when I taught seminary and then every semester at BYU I would bring it up because we know that there are a lot of broken families. Divorce happens a lot or a father is missing or something has happened to disturb the family and then remarriages happen. Some of these kids will sit there and adults too that will get like really some heartaches about how does this work and whom I seal to. What if I'm not sealed with people I want to be sealed to.
“I had a friend called me when we were on our way to a conference in Santa Fe and I think we got there a day to head so we spent Sunday in Santa Fe and went to church there.”
This friend called you that I hate about a year, but could you do me a favor and call a friend of mine who is going through an incredible heartbreak because she was divorced.
And she and her husband previous husband had never been sealed.
They had children. Then he remarried and got active and was being sealed to his second wife and had invited their children to be sealed to him and his son. And his second wife. So her children would be sealed to another woman and her ex husband. And she's like dying.
My friend calls and says, "Could you please talk to her?" I called this lady that I didn't know. First I asked her to tell me her story so she could be validated. And then I said, "Honey, it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay."
And then I said, "I don't want to be sealed. Do not separate people. They bring them together." This is bringing us into the family of Adam and Eve. In whatever glory we choose to receive and qualify for. By learning to put that law, I said, "If you continue on your path to kingdom of God in the celestial kingdom, you will not be separated from your children. You'll be united with them forever."
The bonds of your connection will forever be there if you keep your permanence. It's all about keeping your permanence.
And God is so generous, but these ceilings never divide.
“And that's what people are so afraid of.”
A lot of people, you know, the church stopped telling unwed mothers to place their children for adoption because nobody wanted to do it. Chris worked for family services back in the day when they were doing adoptions. And then it dried up. The prophets had said, "Family services can place them in a family where they can be sealed." Because with the single mother, they're not sealed. Then all these people were like, "No, then the child will be sealed as somebody else."
And it freaked them out. Or maybe their parents got freaked out and said, "No, this will lose the child. Like God would take them away." God does not take things away. He gives them. He restores them. The prophets tell us things for a reason.
And it is not to take your children away.
When they encourage people to go to the temple and be sealed even if it is a second marriage,
it is not so that they can take away children from the first marriage. God doesn't do that. Can we trust him in the early days of the church? Because we talked about how it's mine upon mine precept upon precept. There's no way we get everything when it first comes.
It takes us a while to absorb it and understand it.
So when the restoration happened,
then temples started to be built. And of course, Kirtland wasn't really about ordinance work. Navu was, you know, it's coming little by little. The endowment comes shortly before the prophets martyrdom. All this stuff is happening while they were doing sealing.
Now think about that early generation of the restoration saints. Their parents were not married in temples. This is for a generation. So they're coming into the church new. Nobody's work is done for their families,
most of their parents were not members. Nobody's sealed to their mom and dad. What did they do? They went and they got sealed to a prophet. It was not fully understood.
For instance, we have people like Hebrew J Grant,
who was one of our Latter Day prophets,
whose father was in a puzzle, who had a diet and grant, a righteous man, heaver, is sealed to Joseph Smith.
“Do we think that means he won't be with his righteous father?”
Of course, that's not true. God has not known his separate, that man from his son and that son from his father. We want to be sealed into the family of Adam and Eve. It wasn't until Willford Woodruff,
it was like late 1800s, that Willford Woodruff was praying because he was about to go to the temple. And again, it wasn't like temples were all around. You know, if you weren't right there in St. George, or Logan or Salt Lake or Maddie,
and members started to be different places. Most people weren't married in the temple. They got married and then when they had the chance and the money and the opportunity to travel, they went and got sealed.
So their children weren't born in the cabinet. Then their children grew up and they went to be sealed later. It's much easier now for the majority of church members if they want to.
“They can begin their marriage with a temple ceiling”
and then their children were born in the cabinet. But back in that day, Willford Woodruff was as an adult praying about to whom he should be sealed. And they talked a lot about the doctrine of adoption because they weren't like being adopted into somebody's family
when they would go and be sealed to a prophet. He's praying and the voice of the Lord came to him. He shared this with the saints in a conference when he was a prophet. And it changed the culture because he said,
"As I was praying, this Spirit came to me and said, "You have a father, haven't you?" "You have a mother, haven't you?" And it was like a brand new thought. I guess I could be sealed to them.
So he was, but it was a change. That's right, 1800s. And he teaches it now as a new doctrine. You can be sealed to your own mom and dad. But so now look at how much pain there is in our century
or decades when people are like, "Oh no, I'm not sealed to my dad." Or I'm not sealed to my children. Don't worry about it. Yeah, it gets an eternal prison cell or something or else.
Yes, like it's handcuffs that you're like stuck with these and marriage too. I've said that forever because I've had a lot of people coming to me and said, "I don't want to be sealed or then you won't be."
It's not a selling point for some. That's right. Again, it's not handcuffs. Now God is more generous than that. Can we trust Him?
Can we trust that like He knows our heartaches? And He has a solution for all of them.
And you know what the solution is?
Stand forever. Keep your covenants. Trust in this marvelous light and truth. I've the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Keep coming.
Keep turning to the Lord. Bring your heartache to Him. Even if you don't feel His love, it's there. Abandonment is a misperception because of our pain and our grief. Can I share one more thing?
Please. Here's my last thought about this wonderful prophet and this incredible story.
“I think one of the reasons, as I said, that we love this story is because it is such a clear manifestation of the power of Dehovah.”
That can be manifest through a righteous prophet, through righteous priesthood. And through righteousness because again, we know women also have access to the powers of heaven. It's impressive and it's comforting that such magnificent, awesome. Power is available from a loving God. But look at our world.
We are now in a season where power is often demonized. Look at what God promised to the children of Israel. This is from Deuteronomy chapter 15. Really hit me this time through it, verse 5, only if they'll carefully harken into the voice of the Lord that God, to observe to do all these commandments.
Verse 6, "For the Lord thy God blessed thee as he promised thee and thou shal...
Now shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee. That is a superpower." Interesting. He was telling Israel, "You will be a superpower if you obey." Now is that because he wanted them to oppress?
No. Because through them light and truth and goodness and even loans or whatever could come to other countries,
it was because they were powerful.
“And what has to happen for a country to be powerful?”
They have to be prosperous. Money talks. You can't have power if you don't have resources. We are told again and again was given that blessing of prosperity if they would worship to Hover. So that they could lend to other nations and influence other nations as long as they were worshiping Christ.
But now we are suspicious of power. Now let's put it right out there. Power corrupts often. And absolute power as we have heard corrupts absolutely. So we have reason to be cautious about power.
Because it is so easily abused and so often abused. That doesn't make power wrong. We can so easily swing that pendulum all the way to the other side and miss center. And think that all power is bad and should be suspect or should be attacked or undercut. Look how we have taken this down to the micro level.
Masculinity is powerful, but now it's so often seen as toxic.
It's bad. And I've probably said this before, but in this second hour of church. Primary young men's young women's relief to study elder's corn. The group that is most vulnerable to suicide is the elder's corn. At a rate that is like four to one over women.
We have been attacking men. I've been in the crosshairs. Satan, he's going after women too. He's an equal opportunity adversary. But he has really targeted men because they are powerful.
Because they protect because they defend. They do things for women that we cannot do for ourselves. And for children. Look at that attack. It's because there's power there.
And he makes women say stupid stuff like we don't need men.
“And then somebody says, well, who built the building that you're sitting in?”
Did you get here in a vehicle? Who built that vehicle? Was it women? It's so obvious when you look at it. But it's subtle.
And it has crept in to where these things really are. And attack against power. How we have even tried to evisrate God's power. I don't get be wrong. Christ is gentle and kind and merciful.
And he is also omnipotent. And all powerful. He is a God of power. And sometimes you'll hear people talk about Christ now in a way that when his second coming is here,
it will be a day of sort of sinkum by a universal affirmation. It's like, well, that's not how it's described.
“I think one of the reasons people are uncomfortable with the Old Testament these days”
is because there are manifestations of God's power. That our powers used in judgment. Some people don't want God to judge. They don't want there to be consequences for sin. It's too uncomfortable to think that power could be used in judgment.
Weakness can never be godliness.
There has to be power in godliness. And power is never evil when governed by righteousness. Much of mortality is about figuring out how to use power. In workplace, in any place, with our friends, with our community, certainly in our most important family relationships.
How do we manifest power? I'm sure our church calling is well, but really the big crucible is the family. Do husbands abuse their power? Maybe because they provide income, or because they are stronger, or do women abuse their power because they can influence the children,
or they can withhold affection? Like, what are we doing with our power? How do we use it? Are we letting it corrupt us? Or are we using it to create holiness?
To be a vehicle to help people come to Christ? Now, Elijah is a great example of power, because he both displays it in this amazing event,
Unnotcharmal, and he also restrains it.
He's fed by ravens, he's living in a cave.
“He's on Mount Sinai, along he's living in obscurity with a widow and her son.”
He had the same power every day of his ministry that he had on Mount Carma. Every single day, the other two times that he calls fire down from heaven
are in second kings in the first chapter, which is apparently not in the reading for next week,
but it is when armies come to try to take him and he calls down fire and he kills for group of 50 or whatever. That happens twice. He had power every day of his ministry, the same access to that fire from heaven, or to the angelic administration, or to raising the dead son of the widow, but he restrained it until it was time.
And it was time at that moment for a witness in a warning, not to convert Israel, but to give them an opportunity if they would choose it. Elijah was meek, which is not weakness. In fact, I have used this connection. Many of us are familiar with CS Lewis's The Lion Witch in the Wardrobe.
Aslan, an archetype of Christ, is meek. He rises in power, but he is constrained and can walk with children. The Savior is meek like Aslan, which is restrained but not tame. And I like that thought too. He's not tame. He's dangerous. He's perfectly restrained.
The meek man is one who has a sword that is perfectly sharp, ready to be used, and he knows how to wield it, but he doesn't bring it out unless it is necessary. And mandated by God, directed by God, to bless, to protect, to serve, to save, to judge, according to God's judgment.
“At the right time, that's what Elijah does with a presabel.”
It is a judgment under the direction of God, and it requires power, a dangerous quality.
A dangerous quality that ultimately is never dangerous to the righteous,
that blesses and protects, Eastern Christmas. I talked about on my podcast, I talked about the names of Christ, and I returned to this theme every once in a while, because there's much to be learned from reviewing the names of Christ. They're so plentiful, and they all have dimension that they bring to our worship,
and help us to emulate. As I was thinking about the names of Christ, and I invited my listeners to consider reviewing one of the names of Christ every day from Christmas to Easter, because as I used to tell my children, Christmas, if we do it right, is just a warm up to Easter. Easter is the pinnacle Christian celebration of the resurrection of Christ that gives me any to everything.
“What if we took one of the names of Christ and just every day that advent would review one?”
I invited my listeners to do that. Well, some of them actually created a 101 holy names, social media thing on Instagram and Twitter or whatever, because there were 101 days between Christmas and Easter this year. They posted a name of Christ every day, and that was really kind of a sweet thing,
and I had some people that did videos for it and whatever was really nice. I want to mention one, and then I'll mention my own message for Easter. One of them was this wonderful young man, Restwood, who posted down in his own social media, and then the 101 holy names, people, they were watching, and they started, he had posted a name of Christ on his own social media
and response to the invitation, and he chose the name I am. The reason I'm going to share this, even though it's kind of pushing back to addiction, is that he had been through an addiction recovery process. He said, "The one thing I don't like about the addiction recovery program is that it starts at with, like, I am an alcoholic or I am a porn addict or I am a whatever."
He said, "But God invites us to identify differently.
He identifies himself as I am, and ultimately we are his children."
I love to say that we really need to identify, not as losers, not as weak, not as failures, even though yes, we lose, and we fail, and we're weak, and we stumble, and we're imperfect, but that's not how we should identify. God identifies himself as our father, and we are his children, and as our prophet, President Nelson said, "What were the three child of God, child of a covenant, disciple of Christ?"
Those are our identifiers, those should be our items. As we do that, we are following in God himself who says, "I am, I am yours. I am God's and I am yours, and he is our redeemer."
I was thinking of all those fun things, and there were some really beautiful ...
that people made to celebrate his names.
“It came to me that my Easter message was going to be on his name.”
Lord God omnipotent from the book of Revelation. Because we should not demonize power. We should celebrate it, and we should invite it into our lives, in our various stewardship's God wants us empowered. He is telling us that not only does he have all power,
but he wants to share it with us, but we have to obtain it by covenant, which is a harnessing of the natural man. Every covenant gives us parameters for our appetites. And if we follow the covenant, we are harnessing our natural man. And we are learning to handle the flesh in God's prescribed way
within the bones that the Lord Himself has established, so that we can be in doubt with power, because then we are not dangerous. We can bless. We can share. We can lift. We can participate in the work of salvation and exaltation. But there are parameters that are said.
“And Section 121 gives us really great parameters for priesthood power,”
but all power that should always be handled by gentleness,
meekness, meekness, restraint, power, love, unfained kindness, and all that good stuff. If we do that, God can give us His power to exercise in our stewardship's for His purposes. This is the opposite of Satan's plan.
Satan wants to use power to force obedience. That was always as any still tries to do that. He tells us this big lie that sin will make you free. In fact, I think sometimes about Cain, who after he kills his brother Abel, Satan's behest.
What does he say? I am free. Which is the biggest lie of all times. Because at that moment, he was enslaved. Satan offers, oh, if you let your natural man run a mock,
if you're all about appetites and dopamine hits and paganism, you'll be free.
“And the truth is, all those things enslave, and that what really makes us free”
is yielding to the yoke of Christ. Taking his yoke upon us, following him and he will make us free to become what he is, which is still blows my mind, that we can be joint errors with him in the kingdom. He never compels.
His power is in truth and light and love and persuasion. It is an antidote to the powers of the destroyer. As I talked about, the Lord God omnipotent on Easter. I said, isn't it a comfort in a world where power can so easily corrupt and injure that the one who holds all power is also the one who is perfectly good.
He is not corruptible. He never fails.
And because he is all powerful, all his other names has other divine roles
become real. He is the creator because he has power to create. He is the deliverer because he has power to deliver. He is the healer because he has power to heal. Our Redeemer and Savior because he has power to redeem and to save.
So think about his power when we think of some of his other names. The atoning one. The power in that our advocate with the father, the captain of salvation, the light of the world, living water. The high priest of good things to come.
The hope of Israel. Master. The hope of the helpless. The keeper of the gate. The Messiah.
We could go on forever with his powerful names and roles.
His power will never be used for chaos or oppression or cruelty.
The greatest power in the universe is held in the perfect hands of Jesus. When I am weak and wounded, broken, I can trust in Christ's power to fulfill his promises. To seal me into his eternal family. To bind me with my loved ones. To bind the generations.
To bring us in. To stand and be bound. In love together because of these incredible sealing powers we talked about today.
That can make our calling and election sure.
I want to say how much I love my Savior. Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father. And I do see their love even when I can't feel it. I know it's there. And I do feel it.
I do. Amen. Lily, I have written things in my scripture today.
“I think I will teach for the rest of my life.”
I know I've had a really good day when I think, oh, I'm never going to think of that the same again.
Sealings are not meant to separate. Beautiful. And aren't we glad he's powerful because of those titles. Because that means he can help me. Means he can help you.
Means he can forgive all of us.
Aren't we glad he's powerful?
Lily, your strength through difficult things is inspiring to me and to John I know and you are. How would I describe you? Who are wise? You are driven and you are deeply faithful. Standing forever. With that we want to thank Dr. Lily Anderson for being with us today. We want to thank our executive producer, Shannon Swanson, who also loves Dr. Lily Anderson.
Our sponsors, David and Berla, Swanson, in every episode.
“We remember our founder, along with Lily's husband Chris.”
We remember our founder, Steve Swanson. We hope you'll join us next week. We've got more of the Old Testament to look at, on follow him. As a thank you to our wonderful listeners, we'd love to gift you the digital version of our book, Finding Jesus Christ in the Old Testament.
It offers short, meaningful insights drawn from our past Old Testament episode. Visit follow him.co, that's follow him.co, to download your free copy today.
“And you'll also find the link to purchase the print edition.”
Thank you for being part of our follow him family. Of course none of this could happen without our incredible production crew. David Perry, Lisa Spice, will stoked it. Crystal Roberts, R.E.L. Kuwater, Heather Barlow, Amelia Kabuika, Sydney Smith and Annabelle Swanson. What are your questions or problems you have?
The answer is always found in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.
Turn to him. Follow him.
